Standardized electronic circuit chasses, such as chasses that conform to the Advanced Telecommunication Computing Architecture (ATCA), define backplane connections that allow multiple circuit cards, or blades, to be physically inserted at different locations on the backplane. The backplane then provides a defined electrical connection between circuits on one blade and circuits on another blade that is inserted at a different connection on the backplane. In the case of the ATCA, connections between two identical blades connected to the Update Channel of the backplane are designed to allow corresponding circuit entities on the identical blades to communicate to each other.
The ATCA standard does not, however, address allowing different circuit entities on identical blades to communicate with each other. Allowing different circuit entities of identical blades to communicate with each other is required, for example, with system architectures designed to provide redundancy by using identical blades that are able to interoperate with each other in response to a failure on one blade. Such operation is not defined by the ATCA standard and is often accomplished by custom wiring of the otherwise “identical” blades to achieve this communications between non-corresponding entities on different blades.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.